The shame of BBC

2006-02-10

Imam Abu Bashar showing a false Mohammed drawing on BBC

How often have we heard, "If you reprint the cartoons it will just fuel the attacks". Actually the opposite is true: If everybody, including the BBC, had reprinted the cartoons, then everybody, including the BBC, would know what the genuine Danish drawings looked like. In that case BBC and Australian SBS would never have told their viewers that the picture of Mohammed with pig-snout, was produced by JyllandsPosten - when in fact it was made in France and has nothing whatsoever to do with Mohammed.

One wonders why the BBC did not check with Jyllands-Posten, and ask them for copies of the original cartoons, before broadcasting the news to a worldwide Muslim audience. One wonders also whether BBC journalists ever consult blogs. The twelve cartoons have been available on the internet for months. Moreover, if the BBC had published the cartoons on its own website – instead of pondering whether or not to show them – and fulfilled its duty as information provider this would not have happened. Perhaps extreme violence and some fatalities could have been avoided.

So-called Danish drawing was French photo

BBC updated their homepage to make Jack Straw appear less cowardly. Instead of Straw condemning the European press for reprinting the Danish Drawings, an updated headline quoted a Muslim leader, Bukhari, for saying the police ought to have stopped the demonstrations.

Michelle Malkin has video clips and transcripts from an interview with Imam Akkari in Danish television. The video clip shows a Danish imam (Abu Bashar?) displaying the famous pig-snout saying, "This is one of the worst picture that anyone ever imagine.[. . .] The hands of a man praying and the face of a pig".

February 7th, Ekstra Bladet approached Akkari at a press center to confront him with the newly discovered picture of the French pig-caller. The problem is that Akkari refuses to speak with Ekstra Bladet and B.T.

Akkari having his ego stroked by the press, while mistaking a French pig-squealer for his prophet

This may sound odd - after all Islamisk Trossamfund (Islamic Society of Denmark) has constantly claimed they "internationalized" the "issue", because they couldn't get their point across in Denmark. But the truth is that Islamisk Trossamfund only speaks through Akkari - and Akkari is "punishing" two out of a handful Danish papers by not speaking to them.

After having waited for an hour, a reporter from Danish Television is about to "jump the queue", but Akkari reassures him, "One moment, Ekstra Bladet just has something to show me, but he won't get any comments" and then says to Ekstra Bladet, "show me what you've got". Ekstra Bladet shows Akkari the image of the pig-caller, but Akkari refuses to apologize or make a comment. Akkari goes back to the reporter from Danish Television for more ego stroking

It is not a case of misunderstanding or mistake, when the drawing of the prophet Mohammed with pig-snout and pig-ear is shown in Arab media in connection with the debate about Jyllands-Posten's drawings, as was the case Monday on the TV-channel al-Jazeera.

So says imam Ahmed Akkari, who is spokesman for the 29 Muslim unions who have protested against the Mohammed-drawings and who in December sent a delegation to Arab countries in the Middle East.

- There are no wrong drawings. We have said so an incredible lot of times, says Ahmed Akkari to Ritzau news bureau.

It was the Danish Muslim delegation, who brought along the drawing of Mohammed with pig-snout and pig-ear, along with other drawings of similar nature. The drawings have not been published in Jyllands-Posten nor in other media.

Even if they are drawings, which anonymous individuals have mailed to Muslim individuals, Ahmed Akkari doesn't see a problem in their having found their way to the Arab media.

- This is nothing, which has been connected with Jyllands-Posten, and one knows that. We believe this case is over and done with. If somebody has a problem with it, they must bring a lawsuit, says Ahmed Akkari.

> "Next time you claim Al-Jazeera shows this picture, show the evidience."

I thought I had. Thanks for pointing that out.

I have now added and translated a story featured in several Danish papers, who got it from Ritzau new bureau, which states, "as was the case Monday on the TV-channel al-Jazeera".

Ritzau has stated the same thing in Norway. Norwegian article: "The drawings of the prophet Mohammed with both pig-snout and pig-ears have been displayed in Arab media in order to illustrate the debate about the drawings, which were printed in Jyllands-Posten and later [the Norwegian paper] Magazinet. Muslims regards the pigs as being an unclean animal. Monday the drawings were shown on the TV-channel Al-Jazeera."